


What Doesn't Kill You

by LinksLipsSinkShips



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Death, Death-Identifying Marks, Gen, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 00:43:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14032407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinksLipsSinkShips/pseuds/LinksLipsSinkShips
Summary: “Rhett McLaughlin,” Rhett said. Link looked at his wrist.“Oh. Guess you’re gonna kill me, then.”Rhett held out his own wrist and showed Link the name on it. “Looks like we’ll end up killing each other.”In this AU, everyone is born with two tattoos-- one of their soulmate, and one of the person who will kill them. For Rhett, it was obvious.





	What Doesn't Kill You

Rhett knew from the start that Link Neal was going to be the person who killed him. From the very first day in first grade, held in from recess for writing profanity on his desk, he knew the scrappy, tiny little kid was going to be the one. When he’d extended his hand, introducing himself, Rhett knew.

 

_ “Hi. I’m Link Neal,” Link said. It was all very formal for someone so young, despite the way his voice was small and shaky, introducing himself with his full name like that. He was timid as they sat side-by-side at their desks during recess. _

_ “Neal? Like Charles Neal? Is that your brother or somethin’?” Rhett asked. He didn’t even bother to offer up his name yet. He was more interested in the fact that this boy shared a last name with someone who was about to be very significant to him. _

_ “Well, Charles is my dad. Or, Charles Neal, Jr. is. I’m Charles Neal, III.” _

_ “Oh,” Rhett said. He looked at his wrist and rubbed at the permanent ink there, tattooed into his skin from the moment he was born. “Why’d you say your name was Link?” _

_ “It’s short for Lincoln,” Link said surely. “Charles Lincoln Neal, III.” _

_ Link was a boy. It effectively ruled out the possibility that Link could ever be his soulmate, the one written on Rhett’s other wrist. Link had to be the guy who was going to kill him. It should have been enough to warn him to stay far away from Link, but he couldn’t resist befriending the kid who was meticulously coloring in the mythical beast on the paper in front of him. _

_ “What’s your name?” _

_ “Rhett McLaughlin,” Rhett said. Link looked at his wrist. _

_ “Oh. Guess you’re gonna kill me, then.” _

_ Rhett held out his own wrist and showed Link the name on it. “Looks like we’ll end up killing each other.” _

 

It didn’t matter that they were destined to accidentally kill each other. And Rhett was sure, their best friendship solid, that it would be an accident. They were best friends before it became an issue, and as their parents struggled to keep them apart for fear they’d end up dead together, that they were playing with fire by getting too close, the attempts to keep them away from each other failed again and again.

The boys had almost killed each other a few too many times for them to feel comfortable. Link’s mother had panicked when she’d gotten the call that they’d crashed Link’s truck into a ditch, certain it was going to be the moment she’d find out that the pair had managed to kill each other when they were still too young to have ever really lived life. But they remained inseparable. Link had reminded his mother that, with the fact their names were tattooed onto each other, it didn’t matter if they spent time together or not. Fate was fate, and they were destined to kill each other. In the meantime, they may as well have their friendship.

 

_ “How d’you think it’s gonna happen, Rhett?” Link asked. He was lying back and staring up at the stars above. They’d snuck out again, meeting at the pasture they spent most of their time in. _

_ “I dunno, man. I’ll probably die trying to save you, and you’ll probably die from one of my stupid ideas. Either way, we’ll be going at the same time, won’t we?” _

_ “Yeah, probably so,” Link got quiet, then changed the subject. “You ready for the math test on Tuesday?” _

 

When Rhett met Jessie, it was life-changing. He looked at her name on his other wrist, the one opposite the hand that held Link’s name, and he knew. She had to be his soulmate. If he’d found the person who would kill him in his childhood, then she was going to be the one he spent that life with until then. So Rhett got serious, serious about wooing her, serious about getting close to her, serious about finding out how to spend his forever with her.

 

_ “How does it feel knowing she’s your soulmate? Being that sure about her?” Link asked Rhett one day. He looked at his other wrist. It had been mysteriously, painfully blank for his entire life, and it had been a sticking point in his marriage. He didn’t believe in soulmates, not really, not for himself, he’d assured her. But he loved her, and she was a kind woman who loved him a lot. He’d married her, believing that if they couldn’t be soulmates, they’d at least have a fun life together. But Link was fascinated by Jessie, by Rhett being so sure that she was his soulmate, and he wanted the details. _

_ “I don’t know man, it feels good. It feels good knowing and not having to keep looking.” Rhett straightened his tie. He was going all-out to propose to Jessie. She was the girl for him, his soulmate, and he was going to get this right. _

_ Her yes came quickly and easily when he’d asked, but weeks later she had doubts. “You’re not on my wrist, Rhett. How do I spend my life with you knowing you’re not my soulmate, too?” _

_ “Well, maybe you’ll meet yours after I die,” Rhett offered. “But you’re mine. Can’t you just kill time with me for awhile since you’re my soulmate?” _

_ “Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Jessie sighed. _

_ “If you don’t marry me, who am I gonna marry? What happens if you don’t meet your soulmate until you’re 83? Just spend now with me Jessie, please.” _

_ She’d agreed. Even if he wasn’t her soulmate, she was clearly his, and he made some good points. _

 

Jessie worried every day about two things. First, she worried that this day would be the day that Link would kill Rhett. And second, she worried that this would be the day she’d meet her soulmate and leave Rhett alone. They’d promised, of course, that if she met her soulmate while Rhett was still alive, they’d be thankful for the years they’d had together and he’d let her go. He wouldn’t keep her from her soulmate. But she did love him at least, and she dreaded the day she’d have to say goodbye, whether it was because she’d met the One, or because Link had killed him. He was the father of her children, after all.

Christy, of course, hated every minute of it. She’d tried to keep them apart, to make sure Rhett wouldn’t have the chance to kill Link, or even for Link to have the chance to kill Rhett, but Link reminded her again and again that fate was fate and they couldn’t escape it, whether they were together or apart. The tattoo on Rhett’s wrist and the one on Link’s said they were going to kill each other. The only other alternative was that they were soulmates, and since Link didn’t believe in soulmates, there was only one real possibility. Link rubbed at his wrist. The name wasn’t going anywhere.

It took far longer than it should have, years of working together, for Rhett to realize that Link might not be the one to kill him after all. He felt twinges of feelings at his heart, the butterflies he’d feel when he was next to Link, and he’d wondered if he had it all wrong. Years in California left him open-minded, left him knowing that two men could be together, that it was okay for that to happen.

Days of late nights spent hard at work, hunched over a laptop and a guitar, side-by-side, left Rhett wondering. A kiss through plexiglass during an episode left him wondering. The feelings he got while watching Link do anything… it all left him wondering. The longer he tried to keep it inside, to stuff his feelings down and remind himself that Jessie was his soulmate, that Link would kill him, the more clear it became that no, it wasn’t like that at all.

It was a Saturday afternoon where Rhett was alone in the house, the kids away at their friends’ houses and Jessie at the grocery store, that Rhett realized he couldn’t hide it any longer. Link was his soulmate.

Link needed to know.

He needed to know that it was okay for him to use knives on the show and for them to do crazy stunts and up the ante. Link wasn’t a threat to him, and Rhett wasn’t a threat to Link. They were soulmates, and Rhett was sure of it. They’d had the names wrong all along. Rhett grabbed his keys. If he was going to tell Link, he was going to tell him now. They weren’t going to miss another minute of living carefully to avoid hurting one another. As he climbed into the car, he wondered if Link had put the pieces together yet, if he already knew they were soulmates. He figured he didn’t, thought Link would say something if he knew. He wondered if Jessie had figured it out, too.

_ Crap,  _ Rhett thought.  _ I have to tell her _ . Before he could tell Link, before he could mention it at all to him, he had to tell Jessie. And since he didn’t want to wait to tell Link, he fished around in his pocket for his phone, using the voice control to dial Jessie’s number as he drove to Link’s house.

When Jessie heard her phone ringing, she couldn’t find it at first. She patted at her pockets with one hand, the other firmly on the wheel, to no avail. The phone continued to ring as she shuffled through her purse, feeling through pockets to see if she’d somehow put it in a different one than usual. The ringing stopped, the call missed.

But when the ringing started again almost immediately, she resumed her search. She dug between the seats, taking her eyes off of the road for a moment to look for the light that would direct her to the source of the twinkling music. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed it sandwiched between two grocery bags in the front seat. She leaned across the center console, reaching her slender fingers between bags and swiped to accept the call. “Hello?”

The crunch of metal was jarring and disorienting. It seemed almost like she’d heard it both in person  _ and  _ through the phone, surely some sort of trick of the mind.

The airbag was deployed in front of her, the sound of a horn on a car going mad, not stopping. She couldn’t find her phone again to call Rhett and tell him what happened or to call for help, but it didn’t matter. Her car hissed with the sound of something leaking or air coming from somewhere or… something, she wasn’t sure what. Pain seared through her body, but the smoke rising from her car was a clear indicator she needed to get out right away before it caught fire. She kicked at the stuck door, pushing it open after a few attempts and stepping out of the car toward someone who was already on the phone with emergency services.

She touched her fingers to her head and winced, pulling them down to see blood. Her vision blurred and she stepped around her car enough to see the car she’d hit. She sank to her knees and screamed.  _ No no no no no _ .

* * *

 

Black usually suited Jessie, but today, it just made her feel sick. It was all her fault, and standing next to the grave, her eyes were red-rimmed and her face burned. She wanted to throw up. A firm hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her thoughts and she turned to see Link standing there. She stood up, reaching out a hand and expecting Link to recoil away from her. He didn’t.

“I always knew,” Jessie said. “I knew, and I thought I could pretend that I didn’t.” Link pulled her into a hug as tears streamed down her face.

“I know,” Link said softly. He’d known, too. He’d known since they were kids, known long before Rhett did, known that they were soulmates from the very beginning. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in soulmates. It was that he knew Rhett was his, but he knew that Rhett believed his soulmate was Jessie instead. So he let Rhett believe. It was easier that way.

“I should have stayed away from him,” Jessie said quietly. “I should have given you guys the time I had with him.”

“We had a lot of good years together, Jessie. But so did you. If you’d have stayed away, we would have all missed out.” Link sighed and smoothed Jessie’s hair, not letting her out of the embrace just yet. “You can’t escape fate, Jessie. You can never escape fate.”


End file.
